:: Media Sanitization and Data Destruction Services ::

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Hard Disk Drive Wiping or Data Destruction

Our data destruction software routines strictly comply with US Department of Defence Milspec 5220.22-M for hard disk clearing and sanitization. This multi-pass specification dictates a verified multiple overwrite of every singe user sector of the hard drive using specific data patterns. Absolutely no user data is retained, absolutely no chance of recovery, by anyone.

Nortek offers secure and professional media sanitization / data destruction services to public and private corporations as well as individual customers. The purpose of this service is two-fold. First and most important is the ultimate erasure of any and all readable data on a media device. Think about it - you cannot afford any doubt in this area. Nortek has the NDA policies and data handling procedures in place to provide the assurance and peace of mind that your data will never be exposed. Not ever. Problem solved.

A second purpose can be the added bonus of hardware reclamation. This can be used to recover the initial cost of the service in the first place. But this really is a secondary purpose when you consider the unbearable cost of private data being exposed to unauthorized sources.

Nortek is uniquely suited to offer media sanitization services. First of all, we actually build hard drives and other data storage peripherals. This gives us a unique insight into the inner workings of these devices. We also provide renowned data recovery services to customers world-wide - this allows us to prove and verify our media sanitization services are 100% successful. We have the production facilities to handle ANY volume of shipment and can custom tailor our services to your exact requirements.

We have always referred to DoD Milspec 5220.22-M as being the widely recognized standard for clearing and sanitizing media devices. This document outlines certain policies and techniques whereby a storage device can be considered sanitized (no possibility of any user data recovery). However, the key is in the implementation - "overwrite all addressable locations" means just that - you cannot leave a single sector unwritten! Who better to perform this task than the experts at Nortek.

Examples of Specific Media Sanitization Services

A - Customer has an on-going requirement for legacy SCSI hard disk drives to be reclaimed and transferred between departments. Due to varying security clearances, media must be sanitized before transfer. Nortek creates a custom software program to perform a sector level, 11 pass media sanitization routine with verification to allow the customer to ensure inter-departmental data security. All units that fail this routine are sent for Level 2 physical sanitization.

B - Customer requires media sanitization services for a quantity of desktop IDE hard disk drives - top secret data classification and ultimate destruction required along with supporting documentation. Customer ships a batch of units that are held in secure lock-up till processing. Logistics confirms the exact quantity and identification of each unit with customer to prepare batch for process. Units are processed as a batch. The customer is provided with documentation detailing each unit through process from reception to "documented end-of-life" physical destruction. Remaining drive parts are recycled on location.

Nortek can also destroy data using a degausser. A degausser applies a strong magnetic field to the storage medium, wiping out any recorded material. It is recommended that the storage medium be destroyed after such a procedure.

Ultimately, unless specifically instructed otherwise, Nortek policy dictates that customer data be permanently destroyed during the repair process. All customers are protected by default by our Non-Disclosure Policy.

In order to ensure complete data confidentiality, all user data is completely removed from all IDE hard disk drives repaired by Nortek. This is done by running RW V3.0 (or greater) a minimum of 3 passes till DoD Sanitized - YES is displayed on the test screen. RW is a custom and proprietary low-level media diagnostic program written by Nortek specifically for clearing and sanitizing, testing and burning-in IDE drives.

The initial write pass of this program satisfies the DoD 5220.22-M specification for clearing a magnetic non-removable rigid disk and this is clearly indicated on the test screen. DoD milspec for sanitization is achieved upon completion of the third pass and is also clearly indicated on the test screen. At this point, there is no chance for any type of data recovery on the drive in question. This is how all repaired drives are sanitized at Nortek.

As time passes and technology evolves, it is Nortek's responsibility to continually ensure that our methods and techniques used to sanitize all types of storage media are actually rendering data recovery totally impossible.